Gender is in the eye of the beholder? Since when? – HotAir

Notice how the Colorado Springs Q Club shooting went away as fast as an SR-71 flying over a war zone? Some want to bring it back, but only if they can call the perpetrator a man, not “non-binary.”

The case was all over the media until it was revealed that the murderous perpetrator claimed to be non-binary, and then it disappeared.

This was extremely inconvenient, as Leftists love nothing better than blaming some hideous act on roving bands of red-hat wearing White Supremacists. You know, those roaming bands of White Supremacists who wander the streets of Chicago with nooses and bleach handy so they can attack random black actors on their way home from Subway.

The Q Club shooting was hideous, and as always it was dispiriting to see it politicized. Everything is politicized these days, so it is hardly surprising. Everybody does it, but the Left owns the culture so their politicization goes further faster.

Oh.

Can’t question the identity of a man with his penis hanging out in the women’s locker room, but can question the identity of a mass murderer.

— Amy Curtis (@RantyAmyCurtis) December 11, 2022

The Left has found itself on the horns of a dilemma regarding the Q Club shooter. They desperately want the story to fit in their narrative of Right Wing terrorism, just as they did with the guy who kept throwing bricks into a gay club’s window.

I bet the asshole listens to RW hate news. What a POS, I would flatten him if I saw him.🤬

— James Tate (@JamesTate121) November 23, 2022

It turned out that the brick thrower was actually a gay man, just as the Q Club killer turned out to be non-binary. Or at least claims to be. There is a reality-based definition of “gay,” but in no reality can a dude with a johnson be anything but male.

The dilemma the media faces is this: they need the killer to be a White Supremacist, but “gender identity” is supposed to be entirely internal and not “assigned” by anybody. If you claim to be non-binary, that is what you are. It is an internal state not to be questioned.

But it must be. So NBC takes a stab at the issue:

Attorneys for the alleged gunman in the deadly shooting at an LGBTQ club in Colorado said in court filings the suspect is nonbinary and uses “they” and “them” pronouns. This revelation has raised more questions than answers about the attack and the person police have charged for it.

These questions, along with new information about the suspect’s alleged connection to a racist and antisemitic “free speech” website, have led experts in online extremism and LGBTQ advocates to raise concerns that the suspect’s claim could be an effort to further harm the queer community.

Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22, allegedly entered Club Q in Colorado Springs just before midnight on Nov. 19 and opened fire, killing five people and injuring 17 others. Four days later, in one of several court documents filed by the public defenders representing Aldrich, a footnote stated that Aldrich is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

There are some problems with that interpretation that go far beyond simply discarding the main claim of the transgender movement that nobody can look at a person and detect their gender.

First, if the guy absolutely despises gays and transgender folks, it seems odd that he is claiming to be one of them. Nazis are not generally known to loudly proclaim their Jewishness. If you hate a group enough to kill large numbers of them, it seems implausible that one would claim membership in the despised group.

Second, it does no legal good for him to do it. Whether charged as “mere” murder or a “hate crime,” the punishment will be the same. Life in prison is life in prison. It would be easier and more productive to go on a hateful rant and claim martyrdom if anti-gay hate were his motive.

The situation has put LGBTQ people in a difficult place: Some have felt forced to invalidate the suspect’s gender identity and others have defended it, while noting that a nonbinary person could be capable of harboring anti-LGBTQ hatred.

Online extremism experts say the suspect could be trolling — which is when someone makes an inflammatory or disingenuous remark meant to provoke — and that the discord and confusion created among the queer community and right-wing pundits could be intentional. Xavier Kraus, who said he lived next door to the suspect and the suspect’s mother from August 2021 to September 2022, said he believes the claim that Aldrich is nonbinary is “a total troll on the community, and a total troll on the system.” Aldrich, he said, never used they/them pronouns with him or mentioned being nonbinary.

You know what? That Aldrich is trolling is quite possible. No doubt about it. Seems implausible to me, but certainly possible. I have seen many implausible things that turned out to be true.

But given the rules forced upon us by the gender mafia there is no legitimate way to argue the matter. There simply is no external standard to judge by, because identity and even biological categories are derived purely from internal states. How somebody “feels.” You can’t challenge those feelings.

Because the identity you identify as doesn’t count unless the identity group you identify to accepts you as one of them.

BREAKING: Trans CNN guest claims she can tell that Colorado Club Q shooter ISN’T non-binary

— Libby Emmons (@libbyemmons) November 24, 2022

Me? I believe that Aldrich is a man. A vile hateful man. I also think his motivations are largely irrelevant to the crime. All crimes should be treated the same; the exact motivation for random murders is a matter of indifference to me. The guy is scum. Throw away the key. Whatever gender fantasy he has is immaterial.

I do believe that there are external, biological bases for making a determination of his gender.

I don’t need to go through contortions of logic to arrive at a pretend decision. NBC knows he is a guy; the activists know he is a guy; at some level so does he.